Happy Pride! Signs Point to a Backlash to the Anti-LGBTQ Backlash.
But progress hangs in the balance. History is never inevitable.
I got the shock of my life driving down a back-country road last week near the conservative, Trump-country Michigan village where I live. How conservative? I see red MAGA hats every day. I see Confederate flags every day even though we border Canada, even though every old cemetery around here is filled with Union graves.
What I saw last week almost made me lose control of my truck.
Joyous surprise almost ripped the steering wheel out of my hand. (Kind of like when my truck tries to make me stop at Krispy Kreme, but that’s different!) My shock came from a gnarly piece of plywood mounted on the side of the road, a makeshift billboard painted bright with rainbow stripes. Foot-high white letters spelled out the words, “Human. Respect. Love. Pride.”
Friends, let me tell you this. Whoever put that sign up has a courageous and beautiful sense of optimism.
After all, we’re just a short drive from a town that infamously defunded its public library over books with LGBTQ content. Also, those hand-painted stripes are the first public Pride colors I’ve seen since I moved up here in 2017.
